Critical Play (Michael Cailen Book 3)

by Mel LeBrun

  “Do you have your phone?” Jessica asked Michael.

  He pulled it from his pocket and handed it to her. She scrolled through his address book until she came to her father's number. She closed her eyes as it dialed. After a few rings, her father answered.

  “Hello, Michael. I was beginning to wonder if I was going to have to make a trip to the States.”

  “It's not Michael,” Jessica said. She left the room to continue the conversation away from Tatiana.

  “Jessica?” Her father was understandably surprised to hear her voice. In all the times he had called, Jessica always refused to speak with him. He had resigned himself to only ever speaking with Michael, who at least tolerated him. “Is everything all right?” he asked, wondering why she would be calling him.

  “Daddy, I need your help.”

  “Must be pretty serious for you to pull the Daddy card,” he remarked since she usually referred to him by his first name or, if she was particularly irritable, by some derogatory name. “Did something happen to Michael?”

  “He's fine. We're all fine. Look, I can't talk about it over the phone.” She closed her eyes, not wanting to say what she needed to say. She clenched her fist. “Can you please come here?”

  “Jessica, what's going on?” Jeff was becoming increasingly concerned. First to hear from Jessica, then to have her call him Daddy, and now she was asking him to visit? One of those things alone would give him cause for concern. To have all three at the same time was cause to panic.

  “Will you come?” she asked.

  “Jess, let me talk to Michael.” Jeff thought maybe he might get answers from Michael who was less emotional and more level headed.

  “No, Daddy. This is me asking. Will you come or not?” Her hands shook and she struggled to keep herself together.

  “I'll be there tomorrow morning,” he answered, feeling even more anxious about what was going on.

  She hung up the phone without saying goodbye and walked back to the room where Michael and Tatiana were waiting. She handed the phone back to Michael.

  “He'll be here in the morning,” she informed the men, looking dazed. “I'll be in my room,” she said before she turned and left.

  Tatiana was torn between who to go with. She quickly decided her mom needed the company more than her dad and she followed Jessica to her room.

  Michael turned to Corvo. “I'm sorry there wasn't dinner.”

  “It's OK, Michael. I'll help in any way I can, but we're going to have to be careful. The typical response for something like this is shoot first, ask questions later. It won't matter if you’re innocent or not once you're dead.”

  “I know. Thanks Lance,” Michael said.

  Corvo turned to Dmitri. “I'm sorry I can't do more.”

  “I understand,” said Dmitri.

  Corvo turned back to Michael. “I'll check in with you in a couple days. In the meantime, we should keep our phone conversations to a minimum.”

  Michael nodded in agreement.

  “Be careful,” Corvo said before turning to leave.

  JEFFREY BOWEN began making arrangements to see Jessica immediately after the phone call ended. He lived in Winnipeg, Manitoba, so going to her house involved more than a brief car ride. He told his bodyguard, who also served as his assistant, to contact his pilot and make their travel arrangements. Jeff then went to his room to begin packing.

  He didn't know why Jessica needed to see him so he packed enough clothes for a week to be safe. If he needed to stay longer, he figured he could just buy more clothes. His heart began pounding in his chest as he finished packing one suitcase. He felt lightheaded and sat down on the edge of his bed. He took deep breaths to try and calm himself. There was a knock at his door.

  “Come in,” he said.

  His bodyguard opened the door and stepped in the room. “Are you OK, Boss?” he asked, noting that Jeff didn't look so well.

  “I'm fine, Kyle” Jeff dismissed it. “Did you make the arrangements?”

  “Yes, the plane will be ready to leave in five hours.”

  Jeff nodded.

  “Do you need me to do anything else?”

  “No. Get some rest,” Jeff said. Something that would be impossible for himself.

  JESSICA WOKE at 3:16 a.m. Slivers of light from a nearby street light filtered in through the curtains, barely illuminating the room. She looked across the bed at Michael fast asleep on his side facing her with Tatiana curled up in his arms. She smiled as she gazed at them sleeping peacefully. At 3:47 a.m., Jessica realized she wasn't going to fall back asleep. She eased herself from the bed. As soon as she stood up, a wave of nausea hit her. She barely made it to the bathroom in time.

  When it seemed like there couldn't possibly be anything left in her stomach, she made a thorough search of the bathroom cabinets, looking for any leftover pregnancy tests. Finding one, she nervously unwrapped it and glanced over the directions just to be sure. She anxiously paced the bathroom waiting for the result. It finally showed and as she stared down at the positive result, she didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Talk about poor timing.

  Her hands shook and her heart raced. This was the moment she had been hoping for for almost a year and yet now that it was here, part of her wished it wasn't.

  A knock came on the bathroom door and it started to open. She quickly hid the tester in a decorative basket on the back of the toilet. She moved to the sink and tried to appear calm as Michael stepped in.

  “You OK?” he asked.

  “I'm fine,” she answered briskly as she began to wash her hands. “Just had to pee.”

  Michael crossed his arms and leaned against the bathroom counter. “I don't know how many times I have to tell you, you're a terrible liar.”

  Realizing she had to do better than that she admitted, “I was throwing up.”

  “You think maybe you're pregnant?”

  Jessica was still trying to process the test result herself. She didn't know how Michael would take the news. Especially with everything that was happening at the moment.

  “I'm not pregnant.”

  “How can you know?”

  “I just do.”

  Michael didn't buy that answer. “Do we have any pregnancy tests left?”

  “No.”

  “You already looked?”

  “I remember using the last one.”

  Michael took a deep breath while looking her over. He stepped close to her and put his arm around her. He kissed her neck and then whispered in her ear. “Where is it?”

  Jessica knew it was no use trying to hide it from him. He already knew she was lying.

  “How do you do that?” she asked, feeling slightly annoyed that she could never get anything past him.

  “If I were to guess, I'd say you were holding it when I knocked.” Michael ignored her question. He glanced around the bathroom for places she could have quickly stashed it. “Which is why you looked so flustered when I walked in.” He moved towards the basket on the back of the toilet. “And I doubt you were standing at the sink.”

  Jessica held her breath as she saw him lean over to look in the basket. Seconds later he had found the tester and was holding it in his hands. She crossed her arms and stared down at the floor.

  Michael looked at her in disbelief. Even though he knew she had been lying to him just now, getting solid proof of it was still upsetting. “You weren't going to tell me?”

  There was anger in his voice but more than that, she heard distress and hurt.

  “I'm sorry, Michael.” Tears rolled down her cheeks. “I had just barely seen the result and I'm not even sure how I feel about it. I didn't know how you would react.”

  Michael stepped towards her. He placed the tester on the counter and pulled her close to him.

  “Jess, you have wanted to have a baby for years. We've been trying for months. This is what you wanted. You should be happy. We should be happy.”

  “You don't seem very happy,” she replied tearfully.
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  “Yeah, well, my mood is a little dampened by the fact that my wife wasn't even going to tell me she was pregnant.”

  “I would have told you.”

  “Yeah? When?”

  “When this thing with Dmitri is over.”

  “Is that what you're worried about?”

  She shrugged and wiped away a few tears.

  “Jess, don't worry about Dmitri.”

  “Oh, how can I not, Michael?” She looked into his eyes.

  Michael sighed. “You're right. I'm sorry.”

  Wrapping his arms around her, he held her close. She buried her face in his chest and squeezed him back.

  The idea that they were going to have a baby was slowly building inside Michael. Tatiana was already seven when they got her, so they missed the baby and toddler stages. Plus, this would be his and Jessica's own biological child. As the reality sunk in, Michael couldn't restrain his elation.

  “We're going to have a baby,” he said, squeezing her tightly.

  Jessica looked up to see his face beaming with joy. She broke into a huge smile herself.

  “Yeah, we are,” she replied.

  He kissed her with an intensity she wasn't expecting.

  “Gross, Michael,” she said when he finally stopped so they could catch their breath. “I just threw up.”

  “I don't care,” he replied, still grinning from ear to ear. “I love you.” He kissed her again.

  “I love you too, Michael. Please don't tell my father.”

  “The thought never even crossed my mind,” he assured her.

  “Good. Let's go back to bed now.”

  Chapter 5

  Since Dmitri and his friends had practically eaten them out of house and home during the days they spent cooped up waiting for them, Michael made an early morning run to the grocery store. He had just opened the back of the truck to begin unloading the bags when Jeff pulled in, escorted by two of his personal guards in a rented black Cadillac Escalade. Michael groaned to himself and turned to greet them.

  Jeff's guards exited the truck first. One stood watch while the other opened Jeff's door. Jeff stepped out of the truck and glanced around at the surrounding homes and then at Michael's.

  “Not bad,” Jeff said with an approving nod. “Better than I expected.”

  Michael found the remark offensive. “Glad you approve,” he said mockingly. “Though I sincerely doubt this is your first time seeing it. At the very least you’ve Googled it.”

  Jeff didn't bother making a reply. He looked in the back of the truck and turned to his guards. “Help him carry the bags in.”

  The men wasted no time doing as he asked. They took as many bags as they could carry, leaving Michael with only two.

  Upon entering the house Michael was relieved to see no sign of Dmitri, Ivan and Timur. No doubt they had seen Jeff arrive and thus made themselves scarce. Michael's next concern was dealing with the interactions between Jessica and her father, which often became volatile.

  When Jeff's men had finished placing the grocery bags on the counters Jeff asked them to give him some privacy. Michael told them to wait outside. He didn't want them wandering his house without anyone watching them. Michael began putting away the groceries that needed to be refrigerated.

  “Why am I here, Michael?” Jeff asked.

  “That's between you and Jess,” Michael answered.

  “Where is she?”

  “Sleeping.”

  Jeff looked at his watch. It was almost 8:00 a.m. “When does she get up?”

  “Usually two hours ago, but she didn't sleep good last night.”

  “Is everything all right, Michael? Is she sick? Is Tatiana OK? What is going on?”

  Michael continued what he was doing as he answered, “She is not sick. She has something she needs to ask you. Beyond that, you need to speak with her.”

  Jeff sat on a stool in the kitchen and watched Michael as he worked, wondering what Jessica could possibly want to ask him.

  Once the cold stuff was put away, Michael put on a pot of coffee. Jessica would need at least one cup to function. When it finished brewing, Michael offered Jeff a cup. He accepted and Michael handed him an empty cup and put the cream and sugar on the counter. He wasn't about to serve it to his sorry excuse for a father-in-law. Michael made up two cups of coffee for him and Jessica and took them upstairs while Jeff poured his own.

  Michael came in the bedroom to find Jessica and Tatiana both awake but still snuggled in bed. Tatiana had been extra clingy to Jessica since the day before when Jessica called her father. Tatiana sensed something was wrong and didn't want to leave Jessica's side. Jessica didn't mind. Tatiana usually always wanted to be with Michael. Jessica was enjoying the extra attention. It helped reassure her that Tatiana loved her just as much as she loved Michael.

  Michael placed Jessica's drink on the nightstand next to her and then sat on the edge of the bed smiling down at his two girls.

  “How is everyone this morning?” he asked.

  “Good,” Tatiana answered.

  “Better,” Jessica said.

  He reached out and stroked Jessica's hair. She was in a good mood and he didn't want to tell her that Jeff was already there. There was no way around it though.

  “Jeff is here,” he said.

  Her expression changed immediately. She squeezed Tatiana tighter and kissed her head.

  “Want me to take the munchkin while you get ready?” he asked.

  “I guess so.” She sat up reluctantly and took a sip of her coffee.

  Michael turned his attention to Tatiana. “What would you like for breakfast?”

  “Pancakes!” she answered enthusiastically as she climbed up and jumped on him.

  “Pancakes? Hmm. That's more of a Mommy breakfast. How about a Daddy breakfast like eggs and toast?”

  She looked at him with a disapproving frown.

  “OK,” Michael said, unable to restrain a laugh because of how cute she looked. “How about a compromise? Will you accept cereal?”

  She thought for a moment and then smiled and nodded.

  “All right, it's a deal.” He picked her up and carried her downstairs to the kitchen.

  He brought her to the table and sat her in a chair. Jeff couldn't help but stare at the adorable little girl who looked like she could have been his own biological granddaughter.

  Michael walked by Jeff on his way to get a bowl. “Keep staring and I'll bore your eyes out,” he warned as he passed.

  Jeff glared at him. “I'm not a pervert, Michael.”

  “Never said you were,” Michael replied as he poured a bowl of cereal.

  He walked it over to Tatiana and kissed her on the head as he placed the cereal in front of her.

  “Who is he?” Tatiana asked Michael in Russian.

  “Just someone Mommy needs to talk to,” he answered back in Russian. “Eat your breakfast.”

  He stepped back in the kitchen and leaned against the counter with his arms crossed, keeping an eye on Jeff. Jeff was beyond peeved. Michael hadn't even introduced him to his granddaughter and was treating him like a pedophile.

  “I don't even get to meet her?” Jeff asked angrily.

  “Our agreement was we keep you updated on her wellbeing. Not that you have a relationship with her,” Michael replied calmly.

  Jeff clenched his jaw and turned away. It took every ounce of self-control he had not to blow up at Michael.

  “Is she up yet?” Jeff asked trying to think about something else.

  “Yes. She's in the shower.”

  Jeff nodded. “Can my men come back inside?”

  “No.”

  Jeff huffed. As the minutes passed, his anxiety turned to aggravation. Finally, Jessica came down the stairs. Her hair still wet, she was dressed for comfort in a pair of black athletic pants and a fitted purple long sleeve t-shirt.

  “Ana,” she said. “I laid your clothes out on your bed. When you're finished eating can you please get dressed?”


  “OK, Mommy,” she said. “I'm done now.”

  She picked up her bowl and brought it into the kitchen. Michael took it from her and put in the dishwasher. She hugged Jessica and looked curiously at Jeff.

  “Ok, sweetie, now go get dressed please,” Jessica said. “You can play on Daddy's tablet for a little while after you get dressed. It's on the dresser.”

  Eager to play with the tablet, Tatiana raced off to get dressed. Once she was out of the room Jessica finally brought herself to look at her father, who was extremely agitated.

  “Do you really think I would hurt her?” Jeff asked angrily.

  “By the time I was her age, I knew what a black eye was,” Jessica replied in the same tone.

  Michael quickly intervened pulling Jessica aside.

  “Now is not the time for this, Jessica,” he said softly. “We need his help.”

  “He started it,” Jessica said defensively.

  “I know this is difficult for you. Please try to bite your tongue.”

  She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “OK. I'll try.”

  Michael stepped aside so she and Jeff could talk.

  There was a long silence while Jessica worked up the nerve to speak.

  “Thank you for coming,” she said finally. “I appreciate it.”

  Though the words came from her mouth, her tone and demeanor said something completely different. Jeff tried to ignore it and focus on what she was saying.

  “What is it you need from me?” Jeff asked calmly.

  She took a deep breath and answered, “Some friends of mine are in trouble.”

  “What kind of trouble.”

  “They've been framed.”

  “Framed for what?”

  Jessica wasn't sure how he would react to the answer. “Something really bad,” she vaguely answered.

  Jeff scratched his head and looked at Michael for some kind of explanation. Michael gave none, so he turned back to Jessica. “You're going to have to be a little more specific.”